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of New York city, of the prairies, of the Ohio and Mississippi,—the volume of American autographs. To these formidable eyes the goddess Yoganidra, who veils the world in illusion, surrenders; to them there are no walls, nor fences, nor dress-coats, no sheaths of faces and eyes. All are catalogued by names, appraised, and his relentless hammer comes down on the right value of each.

We can not dwell on this remarkable work as much as we would like, because we wish to place here some extracts.

"O truth of the earth! O truth of things, I am determined to press my way Sound your voice! I scale mountains, or dive in the sea after you."

toward you;

"I do not doubt but the majesty and beauty of the world are latent in any iota of the world."

Voices.

"Oh, what is it in me that makes me tremble so at Voices?

Surely whoever speaks to me in the right voice, him or her I shall follow, as the waters follow the moon, silently, with fluid steps, anywhere around the globe.

Now I believe that all waits for the right voices;

Where is the practiced and perfect organ? Where is the developed soul?

For I see every word uttered thence has deeper, sweeter new sounds, impossible on less

terms.

I see brains and lips closed-I see tympans and temples unstruck,

Until that comes which has the quality to strike and to unclose."

To a Common Prostitute.

"Not till the sun excludes you, do I exclude you;

Not till the waters refuse to glisten for you, and the leaves to rustle for refuse to glisten and rustle for you.'

The Child.

"There was a child went forth every day,

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And the first object he looked upon and received with wonder, pity, love or dread, that object he became,

And that object became part of him for the day, or a certain part of the day, or for many years, or stretching cycles of years.

The early lilacs became part of this child;

And grass, and white and red morning-glories, and white and red clover, and the song of the phoebe-bird,

And the Third-Month lambs, and the sow's pink-faint litter, and the mare's foal, and the cow's calf,

And the noisy brood of the barn-yard, or by the mire of the pond-side,

And the fish suspending themselves so curiously below there, and the beautiful curious liquid,

And the water-plants with their graceful flat-heads-all became part of him.

The strata of colored clouds, the long bar of maroon-tint, away by itself-the spread of purity it lies motionless in,

The horizon's edge, the flying sea-crow, the fragrance of salt-marsh and shore-mudThese became part of that child who went forth every day, and who now goes, and will always go forth every day."

A friend of ours told us that once, when he was visiting Lizst, a fine gentleman from Boston was announced, and during the conversation the latter spoke with great contempt of Wagner (the new light) and his music. Lizst did not say anything, but went to the open piano and struck with grandeur the opening chords of the Tannhauser overture; having played it through, he turned and quietly remarked, "The man who doesn't call that good music is a fool." It is the only reply which can be made to those who do not find that quintessence of things which we call Poetry in many passages of this work.

We can not, nor do we wish to deny that biblical plainness of speech which characterizes these poems; we or nature are in some regards so untranslateable that in some of these pages one must hold his nose whilst he reads; the writer does not hesitate to bring the slop-bucket into the parlor to show you that therein also the chemic laws are at work; but to lose the great utterances which are in this work because of these, is as if oue should commit suicide, refusing to dwell on the planet because it was not all an English Park, but had here and there a Dismal Swamp or a dreary

desert. This Poet, though "one of the roughs," as he calls himself, is never frivolous, his profanity is reverently meant, and he speaks what is unspeakable with the simple unreserve of a child.

Rutledge: New York: Derby & Jackson. Cincinnati: Rickey, Mallory & Co. 1860.

A rather interesting story, full of passionate scenes and intense feelings. There is very little originality in the plot; and railroad accidents, runaway horses, brain fevers, dreadful family secrets and remarkable coincidences, murders and suicide, follow each other in too rapid succession to be quite natural. The hero is the stereotyped, middle-aged hero; cold, reserved and interesting; and is kept from the object of his love by a blindness and stupidity inconceivable in one of his years and usual brilliancy. The book is full of common-place quotations and cant expressions, which give it the air of a school girl's composition. The chief merits of the work are the few vivid characters, and the interest you are compelled to feel in them throughout the story. There is very little time wasted in moralizing, or in tedious descriptions.

THE WESTERN CONFERENCE.

THIS body met at Quincy, Illinois, on the 13th of June, and though we were unable to get a word concerning it into the Dial for July, we can not allow the time which has elapsed to prevent a comment thereon in our present issue. Indeed, such a gathering as that, with such results, can never be thought of as passé; rather does it require months and years ere it can be estimated at all. We can not grow familiar all at once with the largest Thought or Fact. We can give only some features of that Liberal Reunion.

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1. We do not make too hasty an assertion when we say that at the Quincy Conference the Crisis of Liberal Christianity in the West-we might almost say in America-was safely passed. The verdict of the Churches there represented about thirty in number was perfectly clear for the utmost catholicity. The Churches of the West have resolved that they will stand by every honest mind in its sacred right of inquiry and judgment; that they will not falter at any earnest conviction held in a reverent spirit; and that they will do this not under that frozen charity called TOLERATION, not because the organization contains no form for ostracism, but heartily and because above even faith and hope is Love. In that Conference men of the most different sentiments and temperaments-Sabellians, Arians, Socinians, Humanitarians, Conservatives, Radicals, Supernaturalists, Universalists, Transcendentalists, met without descending to meet; hands clasped hands, hearts joined hearts, without compromising any of their individual veracity and solemn specialty. They were not lumped together by the chemistry of conformity, but rather as various fingers are united in one hand.

Thank God, we are to have no more of the successors of Channing and Freeman and Ware turning with averted faces from those who are by truth and earnestness their own brothers; no more pious fratricide; no more the heaping on any honest free-thinker of unjust burthens and sorrows and isolations which will not rest until he reposes in a premature grave!

2. This diversity thus, for the first time perhaps in any conference of Churches, entirely respected (not tolerated merely), secured a unity but little known in Christian History. A common faith and purpose arose, clear and sunlike; the living Christian Idea stood in the eyes of all against the sky waiting to lead us to a full possession of this Promised Land of Truth and Liberty. For this Unity we did not burn anybody, nor excommunicate anybody, nor coerce

any mind; therefore it was not a Unity full of secret dissents and discontents; and that unity for the truth and the mission of Christian Liberty of thirty or more Churches made us stronger than a Papal See, and freer from schism than any other body in the world.

3. This great Purpose of Liberal Christianity in the West thus rising up clear and defined, the many-fingered hand of which we have spoken at once grappled with it. It was plain that there had been awakened in the West a spirit which was of vaster dimensions than any which had been contemplated. From cities, towns, villages, throughout Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin, appeals came up for help, for ministers and prophets. Several ministers came who had but lately broken away from the old trammels, and desired to be received into fellowship. These circumstances made the sessions of the Conference of thrilling interest; indeed, the feeling in our meetings frequently grew into an intense excitement, pervading the large crowd of those in constant attendance.

The practical results of this were chiefly two: First, initial steps were taken, under a proffer of union from Dr. Krebs, a distinguished Unitarian (German) minister, of St. Louis, towards securing help and interest for the German Liberal Churches, which stand between the Evangelical (soi disant) Churches and the Materialists and Atheists. Ministers in St. Louis, Alton and Cincinnati were appointed to consult with the German ministers for this desirable object. In the second place, a Missionary Association was formed for the purpose of answering the ever-growing hunger of the West for a higher religious life and faith. The object of this association is to support a man, an energetic, live man, whose duty it shall be in the good old style of Wesley and Asbury to go around through the West and see after the bands of seekers and thinkers, establish institutes for discussion and inquiry among them, foster them where they are already established. The small societies of independents scattered in the West are generally calling for pastors, but they are generally not prepared for pastors, and to help them from outside to support pastors is often to do them an injury. There should be a crystallization about some self-sustaining centre before a minister is called, and this would be secured best by regular meetings amongst the people for discussion of the religious topics of the day. For example, at a certain point, it was told us, two prominent members had declared that they would not help support a minister who would touch the Slavery question in the pulpit; two others in the same place declared they would have nothing to do with one unless he rebuked the national sin. Now, it is not best for a Church in that condition to call a minister. Let them meet from Sunday to Sunday, and bring their respective views side by side, and see which is the true path on such questions, and when they have reached a fair and honest platform on which they can meet without compromising their manhood, their crystallization will be pure; otherwise it will not be.

A strong effort is now being made to induce the Rev. Robert Collyer, Pastor of the Second Church in Chicago, and Minister at Large also in that city, to throw himself into this work. Mr. Collyer was formerly a blacksmith; he was afterward a Methodist minister in the Philadelphia Conference. On the anvil of strong and true experience he was shaped into the stalwart and influential character which he now is. A man of perfect health, both physical and theological, of unwavering purpose, of a heart rich and broad as a prairie, whose extemporaneous utterance is a stream of copious and delightful eloquence, he is the man who can unite the "right and left wings," (and it is on two pinions that Liberal Christianity is to sweep over this country,) can create the interest needed for such a work, and to him with much hope our eyes turn.

Most reluctantly did we bid each other farewell, and take our departure from the beautiful and hospitable city of Quincy. As we came down the magnificent Father of Waters, it seemed to hint of that great destiny as yet sheathed in the grand resources of the West. Star after star climbed up to its setting in the breastplate of Infinitude above us, and cast its clear image into the waves; and so, we prayed, may the great tide of Humanity setting Westward reflect in its heart the holy truths which human progress is ever lifting above the horizon into the soul's clear vault.

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THE MORAL CHARACTER OF JESUS.

THAT the divine nature should manifest itself in the world is a necessity of its own perfection. The Light shines from the beginning, though it shine in darkness and the darkness comprehend it not. It will express itself as it can, and it will express itself completely. It will find its way through chink and loophole. It will illuminate dim transparencies. It will crowd in at every opening, and fill every form. It will seek out the most perfect form — the Human, and rising like a fountain in some great person, will make him an organ of its effulgence. The visible creation reveals the Godhead, even in its invisible and secret elements. Nature is the material form of spirit; and there is no one attribute of the Supreme Spirit, no one thought, no one spiritual quality, no one transcendent perfection, no single interior and delicate grace that is not shown in the wonderful works of the universe, and is not willing to be discovered there. But they are revealed symbolically, and only they who can understand the symbol are able to read the Truth. The doctrine, for example, of the Divine Forgiveness has for thousands and thousands of years been most convincingly and sweetly taught by the sandal-wood tree, which, however severely and often wounded, immediately perfumes the weapon that gave the blow. But no ear save that of the poet was fine enough to catch the inaudible whisper of surpassing love in the tree, and to interpret to men its immortal significance. From time immemorial the summer rains had been falling upon the fields of the just and of the unjust, preaching to all who might listen the equal goodness of the Father celestial; from time immemorial the sun

*The seventh installment of this valuable series arrived too late for our August number.

shine had been gladdening the evil as well as the good, letting all men plainly see that Heaven's benignity was boundless, active and universal. Yet when Jesus read off the meaning of these beautiful phenomena the world listened as to a strain of enchantment, and greeted a new Revelation: sunshine and rain had never told such a story as that before. Year after year and century after century the lilies had been blowing in the green valleys of Judea; but how few had the sense to discover in them the living pulpits from which season after season the Great Teacher was telling a heedless world that the choicest treasures of beauty and grace were bestowed on the lowly and pure.

To the multitude Diety is hidden by the visible universe. He is there, but they can not see him there. He is there in emblem, but they can not interpret the emblem. It requires a deep vision to do that. None but the highest souls can see Divinity in the smallest things in the rain-drop as well as in the ocean, in the pebble as well as in the planet, in the sunbeam as well as in the flash of lightning, in the sprouting seed as well as in the upheaving of a mountain range. To most people symbols are boxes that conceal Truth, not shrines that set it forth. If all were poets, endowed with the vision and the faculty divine which are bestowed on very few, we should be satisfied with the manifestations of Deity in Nature, and should ask no more as it is, the manifestation of Deity in Nature is no manifestation at all to mankind at large, who see nothing in the material world but a wild war of elements or an inflexible rule of Force.

More palpable, therefore, not more real or complete, but more intelligible to the common apprehension—is the manifestation of Deity in Man. For here the eternal attributes of the Godhead are not hinted at in emblems which appeal to the fancy, but exhibited in qualities which appeal to the reason and the heart. The mind of man exhibits the divine intelligence; the conscience of man declares the divine justice and holiness; the spirit of man reveals the divine infinitude and sanctity, the divine adorableness and tenderness. But this manifestation is by no means plain to all: to very few, indeed, is it clear. There are those who, from lack of penetration, regard the beauty of humanity as being only skin-deep, and look on man as a revelation, not of Deity, but of Devil. Human Nature in its surface appearance is so dim and confused, the lower elements so much predominate over the higher, there is

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